


Trying to Kill Rapture

by SummerLeighWind (orphan_account)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Sexual Situations, Brother-Sister Relationships, Cousin Incest, Cousins, F/M, Gen, Growing Up, Harry Potter Next Generation, Incest, Next-Gen, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-20
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-13 21:06:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3396317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/SummerLeighWind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily barges into her brother's room and learns something unexpected about him and their cousin, Rose. What she does with this knowledge will shape her life onward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trying to Kill Rapture

"Rose! Al! Mum says it's time for-"

Lily stopped mid-sentence. On her brother's bed, Rose was missing her pants and her brother had no shirt on and they were both staring at her with wide eyes - still locked in an intimate embrace. Trembling, Lily wanted to run, but was far too shocked to even try.

Getting off their cousin, Albus with his neck and upper chest a burning red, stomped forward and dragged her into his bedroom. Lily opened her mouth to start screaming because she was so  _scared_ , but Al saw this and covered her mouth. Holding her in a bear-hug, he hissed in her ear, "Don't you dare start screaming, Lily. Don't do this to me. Don't do this to  _us,_ " and the thirteen year old could hear the quaver on "us".

Slowly, numbly, Lily nodded her head and her brother relaxed. Finally, he let her go and said to her, "Take a seat, Lils."

He was pointing to the bed where Rose was slouched without pants on, but Lily didn't feel too comfortable with that idea and instead took the desk chair.

Al's face flashed with something, but it was gone before she could identify it. He then sat down beside Rose and took her hand in his. Lily's cousin tensed and she shot her brother an anxious look, but when Al brought her hand to his mouth and pressed one, slow kiss to her knuckles, she smiled brilliantly and became the confident girl Lily's always known Rose to be.

"How long?" Lily croaked.

The two share a look and the thirteen year old felt her stomach drop. She'd been hoping  _so badly_ what she walked in on was the first time they'd done something like this, but...it didn't seem it would be so.

Rose answered for them. "We'll be going on a year come next week," she told Lily.

"Oh," she murmured in response.

Albus, green eyes pleading, asked, "Don't tell mum or dad."

"Don't tell  _my_  mum or dad either," Rose came in just as Albus finished.

Lily didn't know what to do. After all, what they were doing was  _wrong_. Cousins weren't supposed to do what Albus and Rose did. They should stop it and if she told mum and dad, surely they'd  _make_ them...

Finally, the thirteen year old concluded, "I won't tell, but you got to stop."

Their faces lit up and Al agreed, "We will, Lils, it's not like it's anything serious."

"Yeah, we've just been messing around," Rose agreed with a giggle. "Practice, I guess you could call it," she explained.

Relieved, Lily smiled right back and sighed. "I'm glad," she whispered, "'cause what you two are doing is  _bad_ and if you were serious..."

"Which we aren't, Albus insisted sharply.

Getting up from her brother's desk chair, Lily gave a twirl of her hand to deflect the tone and remembered her original mission. "Mum says dinner's read, by the way," and with that finished, she went for the door.

"Lily!" Rose called after her.

Turning her head to meet her cousin's stare, she waited.

Gnawing on her softly colored pink lips, the older girl thanked the thirteen year old, "Thanks for listening."

"Yeah, whatever," she chuffed before taking her leave.

v-v-v-v-v

The two came down to dinner ten minutes later and throughout the meal, Lily started to notice things she'd never seen before.

Albus stared at Rose  _all the time_  and her cousin, she was always asking her brother to pass her things so their hands could touch. Occasionally, Rose or Albus would lean close to one another and whisper something into the other's ear - making them laugh or causing their cheeks to flush. Slowly, it dawned on Lily that they had  _lied_ to her.

They were going to keep doing what she'd caught them doing. Al and Rose were going to continue doing  _bad_ things! Furious that they thought they could fool her, Lily resolved she'd tell her parents after dinner. They ought to know what the two were doing behind closed doors.

v-v-v-v-v

Stocking-covered feet sliding ever so slightly on the hard linoleum floor that covered the kitchen, Lily went to her parents who were teasing one another as they took care of the dishes. Tugging on her mum's sleeve, she said, "Mum, I have something important to tell you."

Her parents looked at Lily with curious eyes. This wasn't normal for her, after all. She rarely started a conversation like that. No, the thirteen year old usually just said what it was she wanted to say.

"What is it, love?" her mum questioned.

Looking to the little table where her brothers and her ate breakfast when they were home from Hogwarts, she told them, "You should sit down."

Bewildered, but not yet irritated, the two went and sat down. Resting his chin on his fist, her dad asked, "What is it, Lils?"

Taking a breath, the thirteen year old told them what she saw.

The way their faces crumbled as she went on told Lily all she needed to know on how they felt about what was transpiring between their youngest son and their niece.

v-v-v-v-v

"You said you wouldn't!" Albus roared furious at her.

Turning her head, Lily succinctly countered, "And you said you would stop!"

Her brother simply howled in response and the thirteen year old only started to feel guilty when the screams turned to sobbing.

For the first time since she caught Rose and Al together, Lily wondered if she hadn't done something more wrong.

v-v-v-v-v

With school fast approaching again, Lily knew things were going to be different. Rose and Albus hadn't been allowed to see each other in over a month and they probably wouldn't again for the rest of their school years - or they wouldn't be allowed to without supervision, anyway. Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron were going to send Rose to Beauxbaton's Academy in France because they and her parents felt she'd be the quickest to adapt between Al and Rose to a new school and language.

These days, her older brother didn't leave his room more than once or twice a day and whenever anyone tried to talk to him, all they got for it was snarling and insults. Never before had Lily seen her well-mannered brother behave in such a cruel way.

Once again, the thirteen year old wondered just how much Rose actually meant to her older brother.

A few days later, curiosity drove her to go see her cousin Hugo. When she came to his house, she asked him, "How's Rose?"

Blue eyes solemn, he answered, "She cries a lot. Sometimes she let's me come into her room and we play Exploding Snaps. She asked me once to send a letter to Albus for her."

"Really?" Lily questioned with alarm bells going off in her mind. "Did you do it?" she demanded, wanting to know.

Twisting a wave of brown behind his fingers, he answered, "No. I'd rather  _not_  be grounded, thanks."

"I suppose you're right," the thirteen year old replied.

But, for the rest of the visit, she couldn't stop the feeling of doubt that was growing in her heart. What if Hugo had  _lied_? Lily hated to think that he had, but his sister and her own  _brother_ already had. Who's to say he wouldn't too?

When she went home, Lily marched right to Al's door and pounded on it until he opened it.

Green eyes encircled in purple, he demanded, "What!?"

"Did Hugo send you a letter?" the twelve year old demanded.

Al gave her an incredulous look and snapped, "No! Get out of here you little bother!" And with that, he slammed the door in her face.

While Lily got the answer she wanted, she didn't feel comforted at all.

v-v-v-v-v

When it was time they do their back to school shopping, Lily's parents insisted Albus come. He, of course, fought this with every scorned fiber of his being. He was not interested in playing "happy" family when his life was in perceived ruins.

In the end, though, Lily's parents won the battle and he came.

The trip was very subdue and their was none of the excitement that had come with Lily's previous years excursions. No one laughed and Lily and her brothers didn't ask to go anywhere or to get anything special.

When they went to the bookstore, Albus disappeared.

Lily's parents, of course, had a heart-attack and tried to find him in the bookstore before using a point-me-spell. The spell didn't help at all and the thirteen year old wondered how her brother had managed to get away so quickly.

Her mum had left for her Uncle Ron's home when the spell failed, but she came back just as quickly to report they weren't home. Still searching for Albus, her parents started asking people if they'd seen Al when James suggested they find an Auror to help. It was on their way to the Auror office that they ran into her Aunt Hermione and Lily's cousin, Hugo.

"Have you seen Rose?" Aunt Hermione begged with wet eyes, "I've tried every spell I can think of to locate her, but-!"

Mum took the other woman in her arms and Lily shifted her gaze to her cousin. "Do you know what happened?" she asked him quietly.

"A boy I didn't know took her hand and they disappeared into one of the groups of people milling around," he told her.

Narrowing her eyes, Lily hissed, "You know  _exactly_ who that boy was, don't you!"

Bangs falling into his blue eyes, Hugo shrugged. "Does it matter if I do? They're gone and they won't come back unless they choose to," he declared with a hard frown.

"Listen, Hugo, what they're doing, it's-it's  _wrong_ , okay? Cousins aren't supposed to love each other like that," she insisted while her parents and Hugo's talked to one another about what they were going to do.

Hugo shook his head at her, "Love's never wrong, Lily. And that's what Al and Rose have between them -  _love_."

"I can't believe you!" the thirteen year old said with disgust.

He patted her shoulder; his touch was brief, sad and apologetic, "I'm sorry Lils, but I wasn't going to watch my sister break into a hundred pieces because somebody decided who she loves is wrong."

Glaring at her cousin, Lily snarled, "You know what? I hope you're ready for school because I can't  _wait_ to hear what you're going to say when people ask why Rose's not there!"

"I'll tell them the truth, she had to run away because my parents didn't approve of her choice in boyfriends," Hugo answered.

The thirteen year old had never been more frustrated and angry in all her life. When they found her brother and cousin...she was going to yell at them. She was going to scream and shout and tell them how much they'd hurt their parents, how much they'd ruined their lives and  _hers_. They'd been selfish to runaway, no matter what Hugo thought on the matter. By doing so, they'd left them behind to answer uncomfortable questions and face the ridicule that was surely going to come.

Jabbing her finger into the boy's chest, Lily swore, "I'll never forgive you, Hugo."

"That's fine by me," he replied with a unbothered smile.

Lily hated him for it because she could see so very clearly, he didn't  _care_ at all what she, or anyone thought. He had ruined everyones' lives and he'd do it again and again because he was just as bad as Albus and Rose.

(What was wrong with her generation?)

v-v-v-v-v

Clapping with the other professors as a bouncy girl went toward Hufflepuff, Lily watched only with mild interest as yet another child was called to the stool to be sorted.

"Law, Brax!" Neville Longbottom called.

There was a moment where it didn't seem the child would be coming out of the small crowd that remained, but suddenly, a boy stumbled forward. Lily sat up. He was a tall thing, towering over the children who lay behind him as he straightened out. His large green eyes darted among the professors faces and when he saw her staring back as she did, he swept his auburn bangs out of his eyes and gave a smile that caused her breath to catch.

This  _boy_! He had the exact same smile as Rose had, and his  _eyes_ , they were the exact same shade of green as her father's and her missing brother's. Eventually, he turned his back on her and took a seat on the stool. Neville dropped the hat on his head and there was silence for several moments when suddenly the hat sprang up and screamed:

" _ **GRYFFINDOR!**_ "

Lily's heart stuttered. The child, he was going to be in  _her_ house, just like Rose and Albus had been. Watching as this boy - Brax Law - headed for her cheering students, the woman came to a conclusion.

She'd ask him to stay after Flying class. She'd ask him who his parents were, what they looked like, what they did, where they lived, how they'd grown up.

If his parents were who she thought -  _hoped -_ they were, Lily would leave them be. The years since her brother and cousin ran away had taught her many things and she'd learned a few lessons on what it was to love and how  _hard_ it was to find somebody who care about you like you cared about them - especially as the daughter of such a famous wizard.

Since that day, Lily had come to understand why they'd turned to each other over finding love among their peers at Hogwarts and the woman even fancied she knew when the romance had started as well.

Al and Rose's relationship probably began been during their third year when Rose had faced her first and only failed coupling. She'd tried dating Scorpius Malfoy, but things had blown up spectacularly when they proved to be far too alike to ever carry on as a true boyfriend and girlfriend. They'd fought each other at every turn and always wanting to one up the other to the point that one day, they'd just started screaming at one each other until their voices had both gone hoarse and Albus had to step in to lead their cousin away from the awful situation

The next day, Rose had broken up with Scorpius - though, she'd not been nearly as upset about it as Scorpius had been.

Lily had wondered why that was at the time, but it'd been forgotten easily enough, because she'd just been happy knowing her cousin was done with a slimy Slytherin like Scorpius Malfoy.

Rose's failed relationship and the seventeen years since that summer her cousin and brother ran off had taught her what it meant to be a child of Harry Potter as well. Being one of the Golden Trio's children meant people rarely wanted you for anything besides the glamor that came with being the boyfriend or girlfriend of their child. In all her thirty years, Lily had yet to find anybody to share her life with the way her parents shared theirs. Many of her cousins were in much the same spot as she - single and looking.

She suspected some of them always would be; that scared Lily and made her several times more jealous of her oldest brother.

James, by luck or by pure determination, had set off for the muggle world shortly after Albus ran away and found someone. It was while working for the muggle government, he met a very nice woman, Carrie. They'd married after a couple years of dating and soon, they'd be celebrating their fifteenth wedding anniversary with their two daughters, Linda and Ginny.

Somedays, Lily believed she'd never get to do the same.

And that? That  _stung_ like nothing else she'd ever experienced. To know that there might not be a man out there to hold you, kiss you, and tell you he loves you until the end of time broke Lily over and over to the point she sometimes couldn't even give the effort to try and find that man.

It hurt even more than the thought of not having a child. Yes, she knew she could have one without a husband, but what was the point if you didn't get to share in the accomplishments with the person who helped you created said child? Lily just didn't know.

So, as she saw the Brax boy take a seat beside what could be his cousin, Dora Scamander, she was glad for him. His parents had loved each other so much they'd left behind their families and given him a life Lily was sure he'd never had had if Rose and Albus had stayed. If they'd stayed, the boy probably wouldn't even  _exist_ and that, that filled the woman with a terrible sense of guilt.

She'd nearly stopped his creation, Lily had almost kept a person from getting to walk the earth and discover its many joys and pains.

When the boy laughed at something Dora said, Lily smiled.

Yes, maybe his parents had partaken in a forbidden love, but it had been true and the everlasting kind she'd been dreaming of since she was a little girl.

And so, Lily knew she'd keep a special eye on Brax and ensure that he could find the same romance his parents shared. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and please comment/leave a kudo


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